Arctic
Cooling are a Swiss company headquartered in Pfäffikon, the company
produces low noise cooling and case systems. The
Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC heatsink is a mid-level extruded aluminum
cooler, and it features the companies signature suspended lower noise
fan. The fan design minimizes turbulence and the noise created by air moving over
the edges of a traditional fan frame, by removing as much of the
fans' frame as possible.

The heatsink is constructed from a simple aluminum extrusion, and aside from
the rather odd-looking low noise fan is pretty straightforward. The fan is
controlled by an embedded thermistor to control its noise output. The Arctic
Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC works with all existing
socket 754/939/940 AMD Athlon64 processors, and because it lacks any copper
components, is a light 448 grams. The fan adjusts its speed from 1000-2500 RPM
depending on the temperature read by the thermistor which is lodged between the
aluminum fins of the heatsink.

The thermistor enables the fan to thermally throttle its
speed based on the temperature feedback. This kind of passive control limits some
of the noise from the Arctic Cooling fan, but allows that extra kick
to be delivered when necessary.

The mounting clips are tool free,
and unlike most K8 implementations are also separate. Each side needs to be locked into place for
the Silencer 64 Ultra TC heatsink to be properly
installed. FrostyTech's Test Methodology is outlined in detail here
if you would like to know about the parameters under which this heatsink will be evaluated.
Now let's take a closer look at the Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC
heatsink, its acoustic characteristics, and thermal test results!